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Hang up them boots and pick up the controller

Here at Casumo we’re curious about everything. Like for example, how much properties on the Monopoly board game cost according to today’s market value. This time, we wanted to know how FIFA eSports earnings compare to the salaries of traditional professional footballers. Are you curious?

A glance at the eSports industry

In recent years, the eSports industry has seen incredible growth, from $325 million in 2015 to $696 million for 2017, and is estimated to be worth $1.5 billion by 2020. Competitive video gaming has become a career choice for quite a number of players who take their eSports seriously. Although millions of people play eSports, only the very top are rewarded for their efforts, and reaching that level is not a walk in the park.

Tournament prizes for eSports are also increasing with the FIFA Interactive World Cup paying out $200,000 to last year’s winner Spencer Ealing, up from the $20,000 awarded to the 2016 winner. That’s $180,000 more!

This is why we thought it would be cool to compare the amount earned by gamers playing from the sofa to what players on the pitch get. We did this by analysing the top FIFA eSports players’ prize earnings to professional footballers salaries.

Let’s compare

  • The Top 10 FIFA eSports players earned on average £55,911 from total tournament prizes in 2017.
  • Top FIFA eSports players earned more than 25% of all professional footballers playing in the English League System (this includes Premier League, Championship, League 1 and League 2)
  • Prize earnings for the top FIFA eSports players have increased by almost 850% since 2015, from $8,316 to $78,905 in 2017.
  • If prize earnings continue to increase at the same rate the top FIFA eSports players earnings could reach $670,692 (£469,008) by 2020. This would putFIFA eSports players earnings above the salary of players in the Championship and above 75% of all professional players in the English League system.

Average Footballer Salary by League & Top 10 FIFA Gamers Average Tournament Prize

League Average Salary
Premier League £2,642,508
Championship £369,720
League 1 £81,432
Top 10 FIFA Gamers £55,911*
League 2 £47,372
*figure converted to GBP from 78,905 US Dollars, correct as of Wednesday 24th January 2018.

Sources

Top 10 FIFA 17 Players and Tournament Prizes

Player Tournament Prizes
1. Spencer Ealing $250,000
2. Chevry Corentin $173,000
3. Shaun Springette $86,000
4. Timo Siep $54,526
5. Cihan Yasarlar $44,227
6. Kai Wollin $42,183
7. Rafael Salles Leite Fortes $38,000
8. Tassal Rushan $35,500
9. Daniele Paolucci $34,000
10. Aldossary Mossad $31,500
Average $78,905

Sources

Average of the tournament earnings for top 10 FIFA Players by year

Year Tournament Prizes
FIFA 15 $8,316
FIFA 16 $8,710
FIFA 17 $78,905

Sources

Number of Professional Football Players by League

League Number of Players
Premier League 535
Championship 643
League 1 662
League 2 661
Total number of players 2501

Sources

One clear winner

That’s it then, top FIFA gamers are netting more pay than professional footballers. The way things are going, it might be time for footballers to hang up their boots and pick up the controllers. In the meantime, here at Casumo online casino we’ll keep our curiosity levels high.


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